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Tuesday, May 08, 2012

this IS gonna hurt

I wonder how long its going to take (how many years) for healthcare to be forced to change in this country? I predict within the next ten years there will be a tumultuous change. That is about the midway point for the baby boomer generation to be turning 65.

The public has no idea what is happening in medicine. It is becoming more and more sophisticated (increasing complex technology and procedures) and therefore, more costly. People are living a lot longer. There has been an explosion of people living well into their 80's and 90's. I see them every day. Old people have more medical problems, increasing health care costs. Add that to the aging boomers, and you have a recipe for disaster. The system WILL go bankrupt, its just a matter of when. The cost of insurance will be out of reach for the average consumer.

We will end up with a national health care system. Its inevitable. Its the only way that all the people will be able to get the health care they need. The fact of the matter is, more of our national budget and taxes are going to have to go to paying for health care for all of us.

Health care will change tremendously. It will be rationed. Not every old person is going to be able to have the very costly care to keep themselves alive. You won't be able to run to the doctor at the drop of a hat. The health care of the future will look very different from the health care of today.

Along with all these changes, interest groups in medicine, who up until now have had a lot of power, will no longer have it. Insurance companies will probably cease to exist, replaced by companies that coordinate care in a cost efficient manner and work for the government. Doctors will become specialists, general medicine will be in the hands of nurse practicioners and PAs who are less costly. If the nursing profession is smart, it will change too, taking on a role as care coordinators, a task we are well suited for.

In order to survive, those with vested interests (nurses, doctors, insurance companies, etc.) are going to have to change and be open to
new ideas and roles. This is going to be very hard for some groups such as doctors, who have had a lot of power in medicine up until now. They will now become part of a health care team which cares for the patient in the most efficient and cost effective manner. Either you are open to the change coming, or you will be left by the wayside.

In the not too distant future nurses and pharmacists will provide most of the primary care. Especially if the FDA creates the "behind the counter" class of meds they keep talking about. MDs will a be specialists. It will be different but I think it will work.

I don't think national healthcare is inevitable. We can't rule out the possiblity that the status will remain quo, and people who can't afford care will just keep dying. I think that the current system is really good for the quack remedy business. There are people getting rich giving advice such as, "You need to start taking these herbs and vitamins and get off those unnatural blood pressure and diabetes pills." Come to think of it, maybe I should open a spiritual sweat lodge that cures cancer and gout. Want to buy some healing crystals, brought up by robot submersible from the lost ruins of Atlantis? Guaranteed to relieve arthritis and keep your color fabrics from fading.

My point is, don't rule out the possibility that things will just keep getting more crazy, and the value of human life will continue to depreciate from the point of view of those who control access to evidence-based medicine.

Is there any news on any new developments in preventative medicine for the many people that have diabetes and heart failure. I have an understanding that medicine is mostly for healthy people. For the many people that become critically ill there is not much hope. Someone say that has several chronic illnesses such as kidney failure, heart disease, hypertension, and maybe amputations. Do you have any feedback on treatment for a person such as this in terms of preventative medicine. Would you say a person with those illnesses at one time has any life left.